Problem: What is $84\%$ of $50$ ?
Answer: Having $84\%$ of something means that you get $84$ out of every $100$ We can set up a proportion to find out what number is $84\%$ of $50$ $ \dfrac{{\text{percent}}}{100} = \dfrac{{\text{part}}}{{\text{whole}}}$ Which things do we know, and what are we trying to find? We know the ${\text{percent}}$ is $84$ . Is $50$ the ${\text{part}}$ or the ${\text{whole}}$ The $50$ is the ${\text{whole}}$ . We are trying to find the ${\text{part}}$ that makes up $84\%$ of it: $ \dfrac{{84}}{100} = \dfrac{{\text{part}}}{{50}}$ If we divide the denominator of the fraction on the left by $2$ , it will be the same denominator of the fraction on the right. To keep things equal, let's also divide the numerator on the left by $2$ $ \dfrac{{84} \div 2}{100 \div 2} = \dfrac{{\text{part}}}{{50}}$ $ \dfrac{{42}}{50} = \dfrac{{\text{part}}}{{50}}$ $ {42} = {\text{part}}$ So $42$ is $84\%$ of $50$.